Keep Calm and Label Everything

I am known in the family as one who is somewhat compulsive about organizing things.

(Somewhat!!??  They laugh out loud.)

Yes, it's true that I send detailed itineraries to all and sundry when we travel.  And, yes, I give Tom a list of meals to eat when I go away.  And, yes, my kitchen cupboards look like a Tupperware advertisement.

But recently I have reached the Organizer's state of Perfect Happiness because I am researching my family tree.

It is the most exciting experience!  No longer do I have to root through pages and pages of original documents  Instead I enter the name of my ancestor into ancestry.co.uk and the program gives me "Hints":  Census records, Birth and Death Indexes, other researchers' Family Trees ....  All I have to do is say "YES!" and this information is added to my Family Tree.

AND, I have to organize my genealogical research.

First I bought a label-making machine.

(Now, I need to interject here.  While a label-making machine may be perceived by many as the height of folly, I have already had several requests:  Would you please make me a label for ...  I rest my case.)

Then six 2-inch binders, two sets of tab dividers, and several reams of printer paper.

O. M. G.

I am now working on entering, reviewing, correcting obvious errors, printing Family Group Sheets and individual Profiles, and filing the whole kit and caboodle into the aforementioned binders.

Bliss ...

Comfort food

Cooking just got a little more complicated at our house.

You see, I grew up with dinners that were composed mostly of meat, potatoes, and vegetables.  Over time my tastes have changed and I enjoy food with a greater variety of ingredients and ethnicity.  But, in a pinch, my default go-to dinner is meat, potatoes, and vegetables.  It's something that I can make in my sleep, with my eyes closed. 

Having said that, though, we're not talking well-done beef and canned peas here. We eat a good variety of protein, yummy sauces, roasted veggies, beans - even vegetarian dishes.

(At this point I must confess that potatoes have lost their luster in my diet, except, of course, in the form of french fries.  I'd really rather have pasta or rice, especially brown rice, as my starch of choice.  In fact, I think I could be very happy living on nothing but brown rice, butter, and a little salt.)

And, as we've got older, we've cut down substantially on our portion sizes.  Good news, that.

But still, three more-or-less-equal servings of meat, potatoes and veggies.

Two things happened this week that shook my cooking world:

First, Health Canada just issued an updated Food Guide.  And that made me realize that, while we didn't need to cut down on the amount of meat we eat, we did need to increase the amount of fruits and vegetables. 

The second thing?  My sister, who has celiac disease, is coming to visit.

It's the perfect storm: time to revisit my favourite go-to recipes.  I checked out a host of online websites.  I went to the library and started going though vegetarian and gluten-free cookbooks.

(Please ... I'm not interested in hugely time-consuming and weird-ingredient recipes!  I want food that is yummy (#1), good for us (#2), and won't take up my entire life to cook (#3).)

Two success stories to report so far:

Garlicky Parmesan Salmon and Asparagus from Canadian Living.  Now this is a recipe I would have tried even without the aforementioned pushes.  The difference now is that I made more asparagus and less rice (sigh).  And, it's naturally gluten-free!

... and ...

Hearty Vegetarian Chili from the Food Network Canada.  It's, honestly, as good as the old hamburger-based chili I've been making for years and, boy, is it stuffed with veggies!  And love that "splash" of maple syrup.  (Hint: Use just one carton of vegetable broth.  Five cups is too many, in my opinion.)  Also gluten-free by the way ...

Tomorrow  I'm going to make Savoury Broccoli and Cheese Muffins, right from the Health Canada website. 

Could be the start of something great!

The Mother Lode

I've always considered myself to be the genealogist in the family.  But it was my mother who found the son of my father's cousin (got that?) on, of all places, Facebook.

So I piggybacked on Tom's Facebook account and introduced myself to my never-before-known second cousin, Bill Rowley.  Having been cousin-deprived all my life, this is soooooo exciting!

And as an added bonus, Bill and his wife, Gillian, have traced the Rowley family back to the 1700's!

(Flashback to our first trip to Salt Lake City when Tom entered his mother's maiden name into the Family History Library and pages and pages of information spilled out, like the jackpot winnings from a slot machine.)

Bill's info catapulted me back into the genealogy swamp.  I added his info to my records, updated my PAF and Ancestry.co.uk genealogy charts, checked all the "hints" on Ancestry.co.uk and, generally, retreated into my head for days, trying to make sense of it all.

I am pleased to report that I have now boldly gone where no Rowley in my family has gone before.  All the way back to the 1600's.  How exhilarating!

Now, I was planning to add a picture of my genealogical chart right here, but I've discovered that there's also a problem with Too Much Information.  In my enthusiasm, I have added people into my family tree more than once, mixed up marriages, and generally given myself a lot of work sorting the whole thing out.  Sigh ....

But what I have learned is that, while it's interesting to know where you come from, it's way more exciting to learn you have a real, live cousin you've never met before!

Way to go, Mum!

Do you believe in magic?

Tom and I went to see Mary Poppins Returns yesterday.  If you loved the original Mary Poppins movie and wondered if the sequel was worth watching, the answer is yes. It's peppy, sweet, and even a little bit nostalgic.

In the paper recently there was a debate about the Mary Poppins character:  Was she truly a magical being, or were her stories so stimulating and imaginative to the other characters that they felt a part of them?

I know which side I'm on.

When I was little, about six or seven, we lived in the second story of a duplex, with a full balcony along the front.  I must have read Mary Poppins, or had it read to me, and wondered if I could fly like her.  Already understanding the concept of risk assessment, I decided to test the umbrella on its own first.  Over the balcony it went.

The experiment was not a success.

I never did find out if I could fly.

And I still believe in magic.

Traditions

When we lived in Ontario, we had lots of time to develop Christmas traditions: shopping at the Cataraqui Mall; putting up the Christmas tree in the doorway between the living and dining rooms; crunching through the snow to St Mary Magdalene Church for the Christmas Eve service; drinks and stockings by the fire; Mimi, Kevin, Molly and Hazel for Christmas dinner ...

When we moved to Victoria, it took some time to develop new traditions in our new home and, though they are very different from the old ones, they still make Christmas time magical:

🎄The tiniest little Christmas tree, already lit and decorated

🎄Fairy lights in the hedge

🎄A ferry ride to Vancouver

🎄A stay at the Westin Grand Hotel

🎄Dinner outside on Dec 23rd (!!) with Penny and Bill at the Sandbar Restaurant on Granville Island

🎄The Vancouver Christmas Market and Gluehwein!

🎄Christmas Eve service at Christ Church Cathedral Vancouver

🎄Christmas dinner at Penny's with family and friends

 Whatever your traditions may be, here's wishing you ...

Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy 2019!